PowerShell Bulk File Rename Commands - Remove & Replace Text from Filenames

Bulk File Renaming Made Easy with PowerShell

Managing hundreds of files with messy names? PowerShell offers the fastest way to clean up your filenames in seconds. Whether you're organizing videos, documents, or any file type, these three simple commands will save you hours of manual work.

Why Use PowerShell for File Renaming?

PowerShell is built into Windows and requires no additional software. It's perfect for content creators, students, and professionals who need to organize large file collections efficiently.

Command 1: Remove Specific Text from Filenames

This command deletes a specific word or phrase from all matching files:

$textToRemove = "Electrolyte Imbalance " # Text to remove

Get-ChildItem -Filter "*.mp4" | ForEach-Object {

    $newName = $_.Name -replace $textToRemove, ""

    if ($newName -ne $_.Name) {

        Rename-Item $_.FullName -NewName $newName

        Write-Host "✓ Removed '$textToRemove' from: $($_.Name)" -ForegroundColor Yellow

        Write-Host " New name: $newName" -ForegroundColor Green

    }

}

How it works:

• Set your unwanted text in $textToRemove
• Script finds all .mp4 files in the current folder
• Automatically removes the specified text
• Shows before/after names in colored output

Example: Electrolyte Imbalance Lecture.mp4 becomes Lecture.mp4

Command 2: Remove Multiple Texts Simultaneously

When you need to clean multiple unwanted strings at once:

Get-ChildItem -Filter "*.mp4" | ForEach-Object {

    $newName = $_.Name

    # Remove all these texts

    $newName = $newName -replace "Pharmacokinetics_", ""

    $newName = $newName -replace "Part_", ""

    $newName = $newName -replace "Recording", "Rec"

    $newName = $newName -replace "_{2,}", "_" # Clean extra underscores

    if ($newName -ne $_.Name) {

        Rename-Item $_.FullName -NewName $newName

        Write-Host "✓ $($_.Name) -> $newName"

    }

}

Perfect for:

• Cleaning downloaded YouTube videos
• Removing auto-generated prefixes
• Shortening long screen recording names

Example: Pharmacokinetics_Part_1_Recording.mp4 becomes 1_Rec.mp4

Command 3: Replace Text with New Text

Replace one word with another across all files:

$oldText = "Pharmacokinetics" # Text to replace

$newText = "PK" # New text

Get-ChildItem -Filter "*.mp4" | ForEach-Object {

    $newName = $_.Name -replace $oldText, $newText

    if ($newName -ne $_.Name) {

        Rename-Item $_.FullName -NewName $newName

        Write-Host "✓ $($_.Name) -> $newName"

    }

}

Use cases:

• Convert long terms to abbreviations
• Fix spelling errors in bulk
• Update branding or company names

Example: Pharmacokinetics_Basics.mp4 becomes PK_Basics.mp4

Using These Commands for Other File Types

Simply change the filter extension:

• PDF files: -Filter "*.pdf"
• Images: -Filter "*.jpg" or -Filter "*.png"
• All files: -Filter "*.*"